Bending device

ABSTRACT

A STRAND BENDING DEVICE WHICH HAS A MANDREL CONNECTED TO ONE HANDLE. A SECOND HANDLE IS DETACHABLY MOUNTED ON A PIVOT ARM, WHICH PIVOT ARM IS PIVOTALLY MOUNTED ON THE FIRST HANDLE. THE PIVOT ARM ALSO MOUNTS A CABLE ENGAGING SHOE. THE SHOE HAS A L-SHAPED SLOT AND A BOLT MOUNTS THE SHOE ON THE PIVOT ARM FOR SLIDING MOVEMENT BETWEEN A CABLE ENGAGING POSITION AND A CABLE REMOVAL POSITION. THE HANDLE CONNECTED TO THE MANDREL IS HOLLOW AND POSITIONED TO HAVE THE END OF THE CABLE DISPOSED THEREIN DURING BENDING THEREBY ACTING BOTH AS A HANDLE FOR OPERATING THE DEVICE AND RETAINER FOR THE CABLE HOLDING IT IN PLACE DURING BENDING, WHICH IS ACCOMPLISHED BY RELATIVELY ROTATING THE HANDLES.

H. N. MAsTALsKI 3,563,078

BENDING DEVICE Feb. 16, 1971 INVNT UR. Henry Nk Mastolsk 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 Feb- 16, 1971 v H. N. MAsTALsKI BENDING DEVICE Filed July 23, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 JNVENTOR. Henry N. Mostalski Feb- 16, 1971 H. N. MAsTALsKI 3,5635078 BENDING DEVICE Filed July 23, 1968 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 IN VENTOR. Henry N. Mastolski United States Patent O M 3,563,073 BENDING DEVICE Henry N. Mastalski, Lakewood, Ohio, assignor to The Fanner Manufacturing Company, a division of Textron llnc., a corporation of Rhode island Filed July 23, 1968, Ser. No. 746,945 Int. Cl. B21d 7/ 02 U.S. Cl. 72-217 1 Claim ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLGSURE A strand bending device which has a mandrel counected to one handle. A second handle is detachably mounted on a pivot arm, which pivot arm is pivotally mounted on the first handle. The pivot arm also mounts a cable engaging shoe. The shoe has an L-shaped slot and a bolt mounts the shoe on the pivot arm for sliding movement between a cable engaging position and a cable removal position. The handle connected to the mandrel is hollow and positioned to have the end of the cable disposed therein during bending thereby acting both as a handle for operating the device and retainer for the cable holding it in place during bending, which is accomplished by relatively rotating the handles.

The invention relates generally to devices for bending elongated bodies and more particularly to bending devices which are adapted to bend strands or Wires or cables to form loops.

In guying many types of structural towers such as transmission towers, antenna towers and other types of steel and iron structures, steel strands as well as fiber glass rope and other types of guys are used to support the tower. These guys run from anchor points on the tower to anchoring devices in the ground. ln some applications the strands are bent in the form of a loop around the anchoring device to form a so-called loop dead end. After being looped around the anchoring device some type of holding device is then applied to the strand to Secure it against move-meat, thus forming what is known as a loop dead end.

When strands are relatively small in size the forming of the loop presents few problems. The strands are relatively fiexible and can be relatively easily bent. However, as the strand size and stiffness increases the difi'iculty of bending the cables increases substantially until a point is reached where it is difficult, if not impossible, for a single man to satisfactorily bend the strand by hand. This then necessitates the provision of some type of tool or device which can assist the worker in forming the loop in the strand.

Accordingly, the features of this invention provide a bending device which is relatively easy to use, which can be easily stored and readily transported to the site of the construction and which will quickly and easily form a loop in a strand or cable or wire or on other elongated bodies of a relatively large size.

These and other features of the invention may be seen and a fuller Understanding of the invention may be had by reference to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of the main working components of the device of this invention with portions shown partially in section with parts broken away for clarity;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view, on a reduced scale from FIG. 1 of the device of this invention ready to accept a strand for bending;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view, on an enlarged scale from FIG. 2 showing the working components of the 3,5fi3,078 Patented Feb. 16, 1971 ICC device in position to start bending a strand which has been inserted;

FIG. 4 is an end elevational view of the device shown in the position in FIG. 3;

FIG. S is a view similar to FIG. 3 with the handles partially rotated and starting to bend the strand;

FIG. 6 is a side elevational view approximately to the scale of FIG. 2 showing the device in the position having completed the bend of the strand; and

FIG. 7 is a view of the working components of the device approximately to the scale of FIGS. 3 and 5 in a position to perrnit removal of the strand after it has been bent.

Referring now to the drawings, and for the present to FIGS. 1 and 2, a bending device according to this invention is shown. The device includes a mandrel 10 which is in the form of a pulley or sheave. A connector plate 11 is welded to the mandrel 10, and is provided with a hollow externally threaded socket 11a. A handle 12 in the form of a hollow tubular member is provided which is threaded onto the socket 11a. The handle 12 being hollow is adapted to receive a cable C as shown in FIG. 1 and will be described more fully hereinafter.

A pivot arm or pivot plate 16 is provided, which is pivotally mounted on the mandrel 10 by means of a bolt 18 passing through aperture 20 in the pivot arm 16 and a central aperture 22 in the mandrel 10. The bolt 18 is secured in place by a nut 24 and washer 25. The pivot arm 16 is provided with a second hollow socket member 26 secured thereto preferably by Welding or brazing. The socket 26 in internally threaded and engages a bar 28 which serves as a handle to provide rotation of the pivot arm 16 about the bolt 18. As can be seen, the socket 26 is located on the side of the pivot arm 16 which faces away from the mandrel 10. This allows the bar 28 to pass freely past the handle 12 when the pivot arm is rotated to perform the bending operation as will be described.

A forming shoe or block 30 is mounted on the pivot plate 16. The shoe 30 has a forming groove 32 formed in one edge thereof. A bias cut portion 34 connects the forming groove 32 with an adjacent edge 36. The shoe 30 is provided with an L-shaped slot generally designated as 38 having one leg 40 disposed parallel to the forming slot 32 and another leg 42 disposed parallel to the adjacent edge 36. As can be seen, the leg 42 is closer to the edge 36 than the leg 40 is to the edge in which groove 32 is formed. This configuration, together With the bias cut will allow for removal of the strand after is has been bent, in a manner which will be described presently.

The shoe 30 is mounted on the pivot arm 16 by a bolt 44 passing through an aperture 46 formed in the pivot arm 16 and through the slot 38 and is secured in place by a nut 48 and washer 50. The shoe can slide on the bolt 44, with the slot 38 guiding this sliding movement. As can best be seen in FIG. 2, the shoe 30 will orbit about the mandrel 10 when the pivot arm 16 is rotated about bolt 18.

Turning now to the operation of the device, the bender is shown in FIG. 2 in position ready to receive a strand to be bent. The shoe 30 is so positioned that the groove 32 is facing the mandrel 10. The strand to be bent is then inserted into the device by moving it in the direction shown by the arrow, between the shoe 30 and the mandrel 10 into the hollow handle 12. Sufficient strand is fed through to provide the length of loop which is desired. The strand fed between the shoe 30 and the mandrel 10 and through the handle 12 is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 with the device in position to start bending.

To bend the strand the handles 12 and 28 are grasped and rotated with respect to each other in such a way to move the pivot arm 16 to orbit the shoe 30 in a counteraseaors clockwise direction (as viewed in PIGS. 3 and 5) about the mandrel 10. The movement of the shoe 30 with the slot 32 in engagement with the strand S will cause the strand to be bent or formed around the mandrel lt) with the hollow handle 12 serving as a stop for the end portion of the strand S as well as a handle for Operating the device. The slot 38 will allow the shoe to adjust its position during orbiting to maintain proper contact with the cable.

The movement of the handle is continued until the shoe is moved to a position approximately 180 spaced from that which it started as shown in FIG. 6, the handles 23 and 12 having passed each other. At this point, the bending operation has been completed with the shoe 36 having caused the strand S to be formed about the mandrel to define a loop.

Because of the inherent resiliency in the strand, when the bending has been completed as shown in FIG. 6, there will still be a certain pressure exerted by the strand S against the shoe 30 as it tends to unbend or unwind from around the mandrel. In such a case, it may be well to overbend the strand somewhat by continuing the movement of the handles past the position shown in FIG. 6 so that the inherent resiliency will bring the cable` back to approximately the position shown in FIG. 6.

In any event, when the bending has been completed the direction of the handles is reversed and the shoe orbited in a clockwise direction until the pressure against the strand has been relieved. This may occur at approximately the position shown in FIG. 7. The shoe is then pivoted about bolt 44 to the position shown in FIG. 7, wherein the bolt 44 is in the leg 42 of the slot 38 and thus provides a relatively wide space between the edge 36 of the shoe 30 and the mandrel 10. The configuration of the shoe 30 and the location of the leg 4-2 of the slot are so selected that this width allows the cable to be slipped between the shoe 30 and the mandrel fttl which will facilitate removal of the strand S from the device. This configuration of the shoe 30 also permits a wider range of sizes of strands to be bent. For example, if a strand substantially thicker than that shown in the drawings is to be bent and it is so thick that it cannot pass between the mandrel 10 and the groove 32, the shoe 30 can be twisted to have the edge 36 aligned with the mandrel 10 in the starting position for the bending, in which case the edge 36 or the bias cut portion 34, depending upon the size of the cable, will act as the forming surface against the cable. In such case, however, the strand will not be able to be slipped out between the mandrel and the shoe 30 at the finish of the bending; rather the device will have to be completely rotated back to the starting position and the cable pulled axially out of the handle 12 until the tail end is free and has cleared the mandrel 10 and shoe Sat).

It is to be understood that the shape and size of the mandrel and the shape and size of the shoe can be varied quite extensively for different types of applications of the device. For example, if it is desired to reduce the friction to a minimurn, the shoe can be replaced with a pulley rotatable about a central axis. This would reduce the amount of force required due to a lower amount of I friction and for exceedingly heavy jobs this type of configuration might well be desirable.

The handles 12 and 28 are made to be detachable for easy storage of the device, or indeed for permitting any convenient length of pipe or tube to be inserted and act as a handle. This is an extrernely desirable configuration which gives the tool a great deal of versatility. Also, the socket lla may be secured to a special fitting on a bench or mounted on a truck, instead of being secured to the handle 12. This would supply a firm, solid support for the device, making it easier to operate. However, if one so desired either or both of the handles could be made integral with or rigidly secured to the pivot plate 16 or connector plate 11.

A great many other design changes will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art. These changes may be dictated if the device is to be used to bend elongated bodies other than cables, it being understood that even though the device has been described for use in bending cables, it can be used to bend other types of elongated bodies which are sufliciently malleable for bending. For example, the device can be used to bend tubes and rods. The preferred configuration of the device does not provide for extreme accuracy of angle measurements and if such as required as is often required in tube bending, indicia marking, and positive positioning could be provided.

Although one embodiment of this invention has been shown and described, various adaptations and modfications may be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the appended claim.

What is claimed is:

1. A device for bending an elongated body comprising, first and second handles, means interconnecting said handles for pivotal movernent therebetween, one of said handles having an integrally formed opening extending axially therethrough and adapted to receive and contain one end of the body during bending, and bending means opet-able by said handles disposed to bend said elongated body responsive to pivotal movernent of said handles, said bending means including a mandrel carried by said first handle and a work piece engaging block member carried by said second handle, said block member having an L- shaped slot and pivot arni means extending through said slot slidably mounting said block for movement between a work engaging position and a work removal position.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,688,199 10/1928 Meier 72-217 1,824,026 9/1931 Little 72-219 2,232,819 2/1941 Abramson et al. 72-217 2.,864,272 12/1958 Swanson 72-309 3,194,038 7/1965 Small et al. 72 4S9 3,447,353 6/'1969 Noveske 72- 217 RICHARD J. HERBST, Primary Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 72-309, 459 

